Some author notes:

Many many thanks to my beta Amarthame, for never letting me get away with anything!

Lots of people have reviewed and faved this story! Thank you so much; I'm tickled pink you liked it!

I'm working on part 2 of this; it's about 2/3rds along now and already twice the word count of this one. Writing is going very slowly because I have problems with beta availability; unlike me, they actually have a life!

Errata: For those who have already read this story, I was mistaken about a character's name of one of the members of the Heart of stone Go club. I had remembered the older man as being Doumoto but his name should be Soga. This is now fixed, so I've re-upped the chapters involved. I've also tried to reformat chapter one to my preferred format. Only upping it will tell if FF hasn't changed me back again! ;-)

If you're new to the story: Enjoy! And don't forget to review!

Blind Luck

by Onkoona

Hikaru no Go and it's characters belong to their makers, I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Prologue

It was totally dark. He was standing on a hard surface, and he was sure he was outside because he could feel the gentle breeze lapping against his side. It brought the soft scent of summer, but there were other harsher smells as well. He knew he had smelled nothing like it before.

But the sounds he heard were not strange to him. Odd yes, but not unfamiliar. There was bzzting and prrting and pshting that he could not place. More familiar were the crickets chirping. And birds, he could hear birds, and the wind in the trees.

Then he remembered he had to find _him_; it was imperative that he find _him_ , and he started walking with his hands outstretched in front of him. He tried to remember who it was he was supposed to find, and where it was he was supposed to go. His mind came up blank, and he stopped walking, trying to order his thoughts.

Suddenly the tranquility of the space was broken when a very large, loud object whizzed by his side and someone yelled, '/Baka/, watch where you're going!' from off to his left.

The wind the large object had created nearly pushed him off his feet, and he stumbled forward in a panic, trying to find the source of the voice.

'Help, I am lost!' was all he could call out before there was a mighty screeching sound and another big, fast-moving and hard object hit him; his left side exploded in pain. He had just enough time to comment to himself that now the black world seemed to turn a bright red before it all faded away and he was lost in unconsciousness.

1.

One year later.

He tapped his way along the route, heading to where he had left off last time. He had heard the sounds of a possible shopping street further along his chosen path yesterday, but it had been too late in the day to go exploring there. Now it was only - he opened his watch to feel the hands - 10:30. He'd be free to explore until 4:30 and still make it back in time for dinner.

As he swept his cane before him, he eagerly anticipated what he might find on this new street, amusing himself with imagining the possibilities.

He came upon what smelled like a fruit vendor to his left. He stopped to listen. He was now on the shopping street he had heard earlier. It wasn't very big; he guessed it was just along the X that the intersection made, hidden among the tall buildings that oddly echoed the sounds of lively commerce going on at ground level. He didn't hear a traffic light clicker, but from the sounds of the cars breaking and starting up again he guessed there were traffic lights. He had been through quite a number of these shopping streets on his travels through Tokyo before, and they were basically all the same.

'Hello there,' a young female voice greeted him from near the fruit stand. Ah, a friendly voice.

He turned around towards the sound. He bowed.

'Good morning, miss.' He always tried to be polite, he knew that worked best.

She giggled.

'How do you know I'm a 'miss'?'

'You sound young. Am I wrong? I do apologize sincerely if I'm wrong.'

'Oh no, not far wrong, I've only been married a year.'

She paused as if thinking.

'I've never seen you here before...?'

'No, ma'am, it's my first time here. Can you tell me a little about where I am?'

'Of course.' She proceeded to tell him it was indeed an intersection shopping centre, that there were indeed traffic lights, without a clicker request system. And she told him about the different shops. He thanked her and was about to start exploring again when he felt her pushing something into his left hand. This was not a uncommon occurrence, what with the way he looked and his obvious blindness. Often he was given bits of food or a few coins, by people he met along his way. He was aware it was also a signal. It meant 'move along now please', though he was pretty sure it hadn't been meant as such in this case. It was an apple, big one too. He thanked her sincerely and put it into his bag. It would make a good lunch. He politely said goodbye and continued on his way.

He explored all sides of the X, making sure he crossed the streets well away from the traffic lights.

Lights without a clicker system were a nuisance to him, because the cars didn't expect a person crossing who could not see the lights change. Drivers had a tendency to follow the lights 'blindly', leaving a blind man to become road kill.

As he came back to the crossing, he only had the street straight across from the fruit stall left. As he explored he heard a /pachie/ noise ricocheting off a building.

He stopped. /Pachie/. He was sure he had never heard this sound before, but it was so familiar to him, his face creased up into a frown trying to identify it's source. /Pachie/.

The annoying mystery compelled him to go on, and he turned into the direction of the sound, following it. /Pachie/. It led him to a building with a open door. It was the type of building that had shops at ground floor, small offices or clubs on the first few floors, and apartments higher up. He was sure the sound came from an open window, a few stories up.

He entered the building and found the usual small concrete lobby space with the expected set of elevator doors.

He wasn't about to go on a strange elevator, so he looked for the stairs. There were always stairs. He found them to his right. He was less likely to get lost on stairs, even though they were harder to traverse. But knowing he had time to go as slowly and as cautiously as he needed, he opened the door to the stairs and went up one fight. He checked outside the stairwell door. He heard nothing here. He went up another flight.

After three tries he found the right place. He came in and realized he had stepped into a club of some kind. It was moderately smoky, and he could also smell fresh coffee and lunch fare. It was definitely where the sounds had come from, for here the /PACHIE/s echoed against the walls.

He was deliberating whether he should follow his curiosity into this club or whether he should leave before he got into trouble. The decision was made for him when he heard a loud woman's voice come at him from his right.

'What are you doing here, sonny?' He winced at the sharp sound of her shrill voice and turned her way.

'Excuse me, ma'am, can you tell me what kind of place this is?'

The lady grunted.

'It's a Go club. They play Go here.'

/A Go club./ It sounded so familiar, but to his frustration he could not place it.

'It's not for you, sonny, you'd better go.'

/She's probably right,/ he thought, and sighed.

He was about to turn around when someone came near him.

'Hey Auntie, who have we here?' The voice was male and older.

He bowed, 'My name is Mayo*.' He didn't like to say his name because of the reaction it always got.

'You are 'Lost'?' the man asked.

He gripped his cane a little harder and prepared himself to run off his standard introductory speech.

'I lost my memory and my vision in an accident a year ago. Just before the accident someone heard me shouting that I was lost. It became my nickname, and, since then, I have found nothing better to use...' He shrugged his shoulders. The speech was well rehearsed and concise and usually it satisfied the listener, but the reminder of his circumstances hurt nonetheless. He let the wave of loneliness gush over him, without trying to quell it, knowing nothing would stop its progression.

'I see,' the man said, in no way acknowledging the pun he had just made, for which Mayo was very grateful.

'Come on in...' The man invited. The blind man was pleasantly surprised at the invitation; he knew what he looked like, after all. He merrily accepted it.

The lady to Mayo's side sputtered. 'But what about the fee? And really, you can't let _that_ come in here!'

Mayo hesitated, his heart giving a painful squeeze; he had heard this before, this is where he usually got thrown out. He slowly backed away towards the door and said,

'I'm sorry, I have no money... Maybe I should leave...?'

'Don't be silly! I'm the owner here, so what I say goes. Welcome to the Heart of Stone!'

The owner led him further inside. He asked, 'Have you had lunch yet?'

'Uh no,' he hunted in his bag and brought out the apple, 'I'm having this for lunch.'

'Grumpf,' the owner said, 'we can do better than that! I know what it's like to have an empty belly, and yours looks plenty empty to me.'

Mayo thanked him and was guided to a seat where he folded his cane and secured it with a Velcro strap with one practiced move, before sitting down. The owner put a warm bowl in the blind man's left hand. Chopsticks appeared, touching his right hand. He dropped his folded cane to let the bundle swing from the strap around his wrist, so he could grab the wooden utensils.

'Thank you,' Mayo bowed.

Pretty soon Mayo was clearing the bowl of rice and vegetables, and the perpetually empty space in his belly was, for the moment, filled.

After he was finished with his food and put the bowl and chopsticks on the table in front of him, he listened for the owner's voice, and heard it somewhere off to his right, talking to someone animatedly. It was too far away from him to hear what was being said, but from the tone he could tell the owner was trying to convince the other of something.

Mayo decided to wait for the owner to come back, so he could thank him again for the meal and make his goodbyes. He knew what outstaying his welcome might mean, having learned to navigate that tricky limit the hard way. He'd rather leave too soon than too late. As he waited patiently and hoped the man would be back soon, a bud of worry started to grow in his full stomach, getting ready to sour the food.

He listened to the uneven rhythm of the /pachie/ sounds, counterpointed by the murmur of voices all around him, for a while. Still he couldn't place that sound. Trying to figure it out kept his mind off his worried thoughts and helped to keep him calm.

Then he heard a twin set of footsteps approach.

'Take-san, this is the only board left, but I don't want sit near _that_,' a male voice complained in a whiney tone. Mayo tensed up, fearing trouble.

'The owner said to leave him be, so leave him be.' The other sounded older, nicer. A chair scraped across the floor.

'Well, I'm sitting over here,' Whiney stated, pulling his chair a little away from Mayo.

Things like this had happened to Mayo a thousand times before, but still shame chilled his insides every time.

They took seats at opposite sides of his table. He was sitting at the head as it were, with the two men now at his left and right hand.

'Nigiri?' asked Take.

There was the noise of pebbles being touched together and then some being dropped on a wooden surface. It sounded so eerily familiar to him, it almost made his skin crawl.

Then the pebbles were counted and something was exchanged high over the table.

Mayo carefully let his hand touch the table. A plastic tabletop. So where was the wood?

/PACHIE/. The sound came from higher than the table surface, he felt sure. His hand explored farther and ran into a stout wooden leg. He followed it upwards to the wooden block it was supporting. His mind instantly supplied an image and a name; it was a Goban. Back and white stones appeared in his mind's eye and...

'Hey you, don't touch the board!'

Mayo started and moved backwards in his chair so fast it jumped, making a screeching sound against the ground.

A figure appeared behind his chair. Mayo held himself perfectly still.

'What's going on?' It was the owner. Mayo exhaled the breath he hadn't realized he had held.

'Sorry, I touched the Goban.' Mayo explained.

The two players resumed their game. /PACHIE/

'You know what it is?'

'Yes, I recognized its shape.' Mayo said, absentmindedly. /PACHIE/ He wanted to see the game, he wanted to know what moves were played. /PACHIE/

'Please sir, could you tell me where they are playing?' he pleaded to the owner.

/PACHIE/

'You know Go?'

That question made Mayo pay full attention to the owner again. He looked at the Goban still floating in his mind's eye, critically. He realized that the clarity of the image must have come a memory from before his accident; he couldn't explain it in any other way.

'Yes, I remember it; I think I must have played Go... before.'

/PACHIE/.

The owner was still for a moment while Mayo gave him what he hoped was a pleading look. He so wanted to know what was being played.

Mayo's heart plummeted when the man said,

'I don't know how to tell you where they are playing... Sorry.'

Mayo felt his disappointment keenly but as the 19x19 grid was still in his mind, he had an idea, and he explained it eagerly to the owner. As he told him about the co-ordinate system, the numbers added themselves to his inner Goban.

The owner started to call out the co-ordinates; Mayo could now easily follow the game. But after 10 minutes the two players were complaining about the distraction of the noise and the owner was forced to stop. Mayo could have cried at the letdown, but tried his best not to show it.

'How about we play a game?' the owner suggested.

Mayo clapped his hands in happiness.

'Yes, please!'

The man guided Mayo to another table and helped him sit. He himself sat across from him and asked,

'Nigiri?'

'Uh, either color is fine by me,' Mayo said.

'Okay, you play black then.' In Mayo's head ran a cheerful loop going: /I'm going to play Go!-I'm going to play Go!-I'm going to play Go!/ He didn't know how he knew it was going to be fun, he just knew it was and left it at that, enjoying the ride immensely.

'Hey, you're gonna play a blind man?' The new voice was older than the owner.

'Uhhun Soga-san, sit down; I wanna see how far he'll get...' The newcomer sat down to Mayo's right. 'Never mind me, son, I'm just here to watch,' The older man said. Mayo wasn't too sure liked the idea of an audience, but if he protested the owner might cancel the game, so he kept silent.

'You're first, go ahead,' the owner encouraged the blind man.

Mayo thought hard. The gird in his head was lit up and all he needed was... A point on the grid shone brightly.

'16-4, /hoshi/.' Mayo was surprised at the steadiness of his own voice. He hadn't even had to count out the location, he had just known. And he had known the correct term to use, too. It sounded so right, coming out of his mouth.

/PACHIE/, his stone hit the board.

'White plays 16-16.' the owner's voice was strong and clear. The white stone appeared on Mayo's imaginary Goban.

'16-17,' he said. /PACHIE/ It appeared.

As the game grew in his head he started to smile and think ahead what moves might be interesting. As he tried out many different moves, they called to mind other possible games where such moves might be played.

'I resign.'

Mayo was startled at the abrupt ending of the game. He had won? They hadn't played that many hands yet, had they? He glanced over the board in his mind one more time and realized that white was indeed dead. He couldn't quite believe it; his very first game and he had won.

'Thank you for the game,' he said and bowed, hoping to hide the happy amazement that he suspected was clearly written on his face. He knew his emotions could easily been seen by everyone but himself, and that showing any form of weakness might cost him dearly. He hoped that here, where people liked to play Go, taking pride in winning was acceptable.

'That was very satisfying.' Playing the game had been the most satisfying thing he ever recalled doing, even if it had felt little short.

'Want to do another?' he asked eagerly.

'Uh, well, you are really quite strong, you know...'

/Strong?/ A anxious feeling ran through him; strong was good, right?

'Am I?'

'I can see he is strong; let me play him.' Soga-san interrupted impatiently.

'Mayo-kun, do you want to play Soga-san?'

Play again? Oh yes, more than anything!

'Yes, please!'

Playing Soga-san lasted longer, because Mayo decided to draw out the game by giving his opponent more openings. He didn't disrespect the older man in any way, he just wanted to play longer. They played it out until there was no move left to play.

'Lost by 33 moku,' the man pouted.

Should he have let the guy catch up more? Or even let him win?

'Sorry,' Mayo started to say.

'Don't apologize for winning, sonny, I'd feel insulted.'

'Sorry,' Mayo said again, feeling a little less guilty for winning the game so spectacularly.

'Grumpf,' said the old man, 'you're not a pro or anything, are you?'

He was no-one, he was nothing. Just lost in the dark. Mayo hung his head and said,

'I don't know, I don't remember anything before the accident...' He felt tears come but willed them away.

'Soga-san, please, lay off him will ya?'

'Grumpf, well, okay.'

The reminder of his non-existent past hurt, as it always did. It made him feel very small in a very large world.

Mayo sat feeling miserable for a few minutes. Then the old man said,

'I will play you again, young man, and the right handicap for me should be 3 stones.' Mayo heard startled gasps, indicating that there was now quite a crowd gathered around them. It made him uneasy. He never liked to be the centre of attention; very seldom anything good came of it, and it made it very hard to just slip out if things went wrong.

He opened his wrist watch to check the time. 2:30.

'I can only play 2 more hours, then I must go home,' he said.

'Okay then. Owner, put two hours on the clock. Let's play.'

Soga-san claimed 3 out of 4 corner stars for his handicap, and the game was off and rolling.

The old man lost by 21 stones. Mayo almost apologized again when he said,

'Grumpf, I guess it'll be 5 stones for me next time.'

Requests to play him came from all sides now. The blind man felt quite flattered. He would happily play anyone who wanted to play him.

He checked the time again. 4:25. So late already? He realized he was going to have to disappoint them, and himself too. He got up and unfolded his cane.

'I'm sorry, I have to get going.'

'Can you come again tomorrow? I'll let you play for free,' the owner asked, '...if you'd like to, that is?'

A surge of warmth went through at the thought, to play more games all day tomorrow, he wanted that more than anything!

'Yes, I'd like to,' Mayo assured him, 'I'll be here.'

He floated all the way back, he was so happy. He kept half his mind on the route and traffic and with the rest he replayed each game again and again, savoring every move and counter move.

~o(O)o~

*note: I researched the choosing of Mayo's name as best I could, with help from scriptwaretranslations and agoodcupoftea. I, of couse, was stubborn and did it my way.

'Mayo', hopefully, refers to being lost or bewildered.